Saturday, 14 January 2017

Inside Mosul: Taking selfies and comforting civilians all in a day’s work for Iraqi soldiers

Inside Mosul: Taking selfies and comforting civilians all in a day’s work for Iraqi soldiers

MOSUL, IRAQ // Shortly after a lunch of
rice and chicken, the soldiers picked up their rifles and moved into
position. They had been advancing through the Mosul neighbourhood of Hay
Sumer since dawn, and had paused for some sustenance and a well
deserved break.

As the locals watched from their doorways, the
men lined up on the side of the quiet residential street, and filed out
at the command of their officer. They paused briefly at the street
corner and then raced across the exposed crossroads towards cover,
zigzagging their way through the suburban sprawl.
Before
turning the final corner, the platoon bunched together to pose for a
few snaps on their mobile phones. The soldiers cheerfully flashed
victory signs, then spun around and turned left into enemy territory.
Eyes darting and fingers on triggers, they advanced down a road in which
every building could be an enemy position; where every window, every
door, any movement could spell danger.
At the end of the road, the
platoon joined up with a unit that had advanced from another direction.
The soldiers halted, and began to bang at the metal gates of houses,
shouting to inform the inhabitants of their liberation.
Inside one house stood Colonel Raed Saleh, the commander of the other unit, giving orders to his men.
Next
to him stood the owner, an elderly man in a brown thobe, who had burst
into tears when he realised that ISIL’s reign of terror had come to an
end. A soldier walked up to embrace him, another offered him a
cigarette.
"Daesh is very weak in this area. We advanced to here
from Intisar [neighbourhood] in a week," said Col Saleh, describing the
steady progress made by Iraqi forces as they pushed towards the Tigris
river from Mosul’s eastern outskirts.
The
platoon moved on, supported by a Humvee and an armoured vehicle painted
in the blue camouflage of Iraq’s federal police. On its flanks, other
units moved forward as Iraqi forces systematically extended their
control of the area.
At another turn in the road, the armoured
vehicle opened up with its heavy machine gun, spraying bullets at a
suspected ISIL resistance nest. Rifle fire crackled, and a soldier
discharged his shoulder-fired grenade launcher at the building. When no
return fire was forthcoming, the advance continued until the platoon
reached a stretch of farmland that lies between the neighbourhood and
the Tigris.
The
soldiers combing through Hay Sumer belong to an elite outfit known as
the Rapid Response Forces, which were deployed to eastern Mosul early in
January to ramp up the pressure on ISIL. Along with additional federal
police units they have provided the extra manpower that, together with
increased support by US special forces, has speeded up the Iraqi advance
on the east bank of the Tigris.
Hay Sumer and adjacent
neighbourhoods had been an isolated pocket of ISIL resistance since
Iraqi special forces reached the Tigris last Sunday, cutting off the
south-east from the centre and preventing the insurgents from
strengthening their defences there.
The
few remaining militants are terrified, often surrendering or retreating
without offering a fight, according to a militant captured by the Rapid
Response Forces earlier that day.
"Daesh fighters are scared and
want to escape. Their morale is very low. They hide in the houses for
fear of air strikes," he said. He was a hulk of a man, with a bushy
beard. His hands and feet tied, he sat blindfolded on the floor of a
house commandeered by the military. The soldiers had covered him in a
blanket to keep him warm, and he obediently answered any question thrown
at him.